CHAPTER 15: THE FUTURE
A year later, I sold the house.
I bought a small cottage by the beach.
Sophie and I started over.
We planted flowers.
We adopted a dog.
We laughed.
We cried.
We lived.
I didn't speak to my mother.
My father called occasionally.
Preston wrote me a letter from prison.
It said he was sorry.
I didn't respond.
Not because I was angry.
But because I didn't need his apology.
I had already given myself the peace I needed.
And that was enough.
I stood on the beach one morning, watching the sunrise.
Sophie ran up beside me.
"Mommy? Are we okay?"
I looked at her.
At this girl who had been through so much.
Who had seen so much.
And who had come out the other side stronger.
"We're okay," I said.
"We're more than okay."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
We walked along the shore.
And for the first time in my life, I wasn't looking back.
I was looking forward.
To a future I had built myself.
To a family I had chosen.
To a peace I had earned.
And I smiled.
Because I had finally found what I had been searching for my whole life.
Freedom.
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